Divers recover body from Milford quarry

MILFORD - Divers located the body Monday morning of an 18-year-old Rhode Island man who a day earlier had failed to surface after jumping into the deep and murky Fletcher Quarry, officials said.

The body of Nentor Dahn of Providence was recovered around 10:14 a.m.

The recent high school graduate jumped into the quarry with four friends. He was the third to jump off a roughly 50-foot ledge and did not resurface, Milford Police Chief Thomas O’Loughlin said at a press conference Monday afternoon.

In what quickly turned into a recovery mission, divers searched the water until dusk Sunday and resumed the search early Monday morning, when Dahn was eventually pulled to the surface. A crew of roughly 40 police officers, firefighters and divers were at the scene. The 10 divers worked in a grid pattern outward from the site of the incident.

Dahn was found at a depth of 70 feet below the surface and about 10 feet out from where the cliff meets the water, according to Milford Fire Chief William Touhey.

O’Loughlin speculated that Dahn may have fallen awkwardly, on his side as opposed to feet first, which may have led to his inability to surface.

His body was located with the help of a sonar device, which was lowered into the quarry. After sonar mapping detected what appeared to be a body, divers investigated and found Dahn.

There was no sign that Dahn had been trapped under a ledge or in the debris known to line the quarry’s bottom, O’Loughlin said. A medical examiner is set to perform an autopsy to determine the cause of death, he said.

Touhey said the Fletcher Quarry, which includes depths of up to 150 feet, is unfit for swimming.

"In the water there are numerous obstructions. A lot of them probably haven’t even been found yet because they’re so deep in the water. There are automobiles, heavy equipment from the quarry basin when they were still working in there, and whatever debris got thrown in over the years," Touhey said.

O’Loughlin echoed Touhey’s concerns emphasizing the water's low visibility. The divers looking for Dahn reported visibility up to 15 feet, and at times only 10 feet, he said.

The most direct entrance to the quarry is at the Walden Woods housing facility that is owned by Milford Stoneridge LLC.

The quarry is off Cedar Street on the Hopkinton border.

"We have to chase kids out of there all the time," Deputy Police Chief Jim Heron said.

Police check the popular entrances to the quarries, but the dense network of trails allows swimmers to park as far as three miles away and walk through the woods, Heron said.

A resident of Walden Woods, who declined to give her name, said she has noticed an increase in the number of young people walking through her neighborhood to get to the trails.

Heron said that the numerous quarries in Milford have been popular, yet dangerous, summer destinations for years.

"The people might be different but the age group stays the same," he said.

The last reported drowning was in 2007, when a young man drowned in the quarry behind the Shadowbrook housing development.